Airborne microfungus flora determined in the different units of the department of Tulay Aktas Oncology Hospital, Ege University

Recently, there has been a dramatic increase in the prevalence of nosocomial fungal infections. Especially with the increase in the number of immunosuppressed patients, rare fungal pathogens which were difficult to detect in the past are now frequently isolated. In this study, the level of endogenous airborne fungal concentrations and the types of fungi were determined at Ege University, Faculty of Medicine, Tulay Aktas Oncology Hospital. For this purpose, air samples were collected at 34 different locations monthly during six months with the Merck MAS 100 air sampler. As a result, a total of 5590 fungal colonies in 204 petri dishes were counted. Thirty-two fungal species belonging to 10 genera were identified. The most prevalent genera were the common moulds; Aspergillus (3.91±1.01), Penicillium (16.08±3.10), Cladosporium (40.82±4.15) and Altemaria (7.51±1.82). The results revealed that the most common genus was Cladosporium. Fungal concentration levels in different parts of the stem cell transplantation department ranged from 0 to 340 cfu/m3. In other units of the hospital, fungal load was found to be between 0 and 45600 cfu/m3. When the fungal density of the stem cell transplantation department and that of the other units were compared, fungal density of the stem cell transplantation department was found to be significantly lower (p = 0.000